THIS HEAVEN

An Aboriginal man has been killed in custody. The police have been fined but no one is allowed to talk about it. Now the deceased man’s wife and children want justice.

In playwright Nakkiah Lui’s new Australian work she asks, does doing nothing make you as complicit as the perpetrators?

“Her script is unlike anything that has been written in Australia before,” says actor Jada Alberts. Alberts plays Sissy Gordon, a young woman who has spent the last five years studying Law and now wants to use it as a means to seek justice for her father’s death.

“[Law] is the way we make change but it can be a slow process,” she explains. “In the play a community gets very angry and they fight back in a very raw and emotional way. If the law continues to fail us that is what will eventually happen.”

Alberts describes the play as turbulent, sad and inspiring. “At its core it’s about how the family was before they lost their father,” she continues. “Having a family unit that was working then taken away from you means your perspective of that time changes dramatically. So you realise that time was your heaven.”

Feb 7-Mar 3, Belvoir Street, 25 Belvoir St, Surry Hills, $35-45, 9699 3444, belvoir.com.au